Cooperative Teaching: The Renewal of Teachers

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2001

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00098650109599200

Abstract

Little has affected American education as dramatically as the growing sense that the way education has been structured in the past is less than adequate today and will be even more inadequate in the future. The increasing cultural, linguistic, academic, and behavioral diversity of America’s classrooms is challenging long established approaches to curriculum and instruction. In terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, the state of California may be the best example of what America will look and sound like in the future. As of 1997, students with limited English proficiency composed 25 percent of California’s total school population, up from 15 percent less than ten years earlier (California Department of Education 1997). Such growth in diversity is increasingly common throughout the nation’s schools. By the mid-1390s, of the nation’s ten largest central city school districts, white enrollment ranged from a high of 31 percent (San Diego) to a low of 6 percent (Detroit) (Orfield et al. 1997). In fact, in several states, including California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, so-called minority students actually constitute a majority of the school populations (U.S. Department of Education 1396).

In terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, the state of California may be the best example of what America will look and sound like in the future. As of 1997, students with limited English proficiency composed 25 percent of California’s total school population, up from 15 percent less than ten years earlier (California Department of Education 1997). Such growth in diversity is increasingly common throughout the nation’s schools. By the mid-1390s, of the nation’s ten largest central city school districts, white enrollment ranged from a high of 31 percent (San Diego) to a low of 6 percent (Detroit) (Orfield et al. 1997). In fact, in several states, including California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, so-called minority students actually constitute a majority of the school populations (U.S. Department of Education 1396).

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